My life never goes as I planned

I often complain that my life doesn't go as I planned.
I turned to be 40 years old this month, and I don't still have a permanent position. I am single though I had some boyfriends and I wanted to get married with them. Nobody really proposed me.
These days, nothing goes well. I had a back pain and couldn't dance for two weeks. I had a presentation in the Japanese conference. I presented a result with which I was not satisfied. I caught a cold the day I left for this conference. So I felt dizzy when I gave a presentation. My senior told me that I am not intelligent enough to work for a numerical simulation. He suggested me to work something else, but he didn't have any good idea. I lost my self-confidence to be a scientist.

My life... I have desired to be a volcanologist. I wanted to work like a Mr. Masao Mimatsu, Prof. Hiromu Okada, Prof. Tadahide Ui. They worked for mitigating the disaster of volcanic eruption. Their personalty were good and I respect them a lot. I studied volcanology and disaster mitigation, and obtained my PhD. I started to work as a volcanologist at the institute near the volcano and worked for outreach or consult with the officers of local government about the political measure of volcanic disaster mitigation. During these three years, I couldn't write so many research papers. I only published one paper with my name on the first author. It was not enough to impress other scientists. So it is very hard to get the next position right now.

I hated my destiny. I couldn't accept such my life with unlucky things. I worked hard. Why can't I get happy and stable life?

I bought a book "Omoidoori ni Ikanai kara Jinsei ha Omoshiroi" in Japanese. The title means "A life is interesting because it doesn't go as planned". It is written by a famous writer Ayako Sono in Japanese. Her life has been so hard. However, as she didn't have a happy and stable childhood, she got a strength not to get flustered even she faced to some adversities, she said.

A life is full of unexpected things. Nothing goes as planned. She experienced the World War 2. Nobody wanted such war and a hard life after the war. In that situation, she wanted to survive, only survive. That is why she can enjoy her life now. It is much better than death.

I should learn from her. When I thought about the suicide, I recovered from the depression because I noticed that it is miracle for me to be alive here and now. I wanted to try to be a volcanologist as it was my longing. If I die tomorrow, I wanted to say that I tried as much as possible. I would like to say  "I definitely enjoyed my life!!" when I die.

Although I couldn't write many papers and couldn't make big progress in my research, I can say that I tried many things these years. So, what should I regret??

Probably, I will get a new life from next year as my contract of the current position ends in the end of next March. Even though it won't be a scientific job, I can probably enjoy it because it is my life. There will be many unexpected events because it will be my life again. It is enjoyable because I am alive! It is miracle!!

Thank god! I am still alive and am enjoying my life!!!

Standing in front of the Kiyomasa's statue in Kumamoto city, March 2017

Christchurch in the beginning of Spring

This is my first time to come to New Zealand. They are similar to Japan at some points. Their land consists of small islands. They have volcanoes and earthquakes. However, my impression is... they are quite different from Japan. The buildings, towns, foods, language and nature are all different.

Interestingly,  I found their similar point with Hawaii. Their native culture is based on Polynesian and so their words sound quite similar to Hawaiian words. I found some words have the same spelling and pronunciation as Hawaiian words, such as Kai and Poi.  Kai means food in Maori but ocean in Hawaiian. Poi means Maori dance or a ball in Maori and taro paste in Hawaiian. These similarities make me a little sentimental. The meaning is different but they have the same pronunciation!

Anyway, their view of the town is very different from Hawaii or Japan. It is quite British!

Curator's house in the Botanic Garden, Christchurch

The street near University of Canterbury

My first destination of this travel was Christchurch because I work with people in University of Canterbury. So I visited some parts of Christchurch. As you may know, Christchurch is a town which affected by some earthquakes seriously. They are still in the process of recovering from the 2011 earthquake.

A university building under the construction

Some buildings in the university are still under the construction, and the vast area of the city center is very flat because the building were destroyed by the earthquake.

Large flat area in the city center of Christchurch.

In fact, I went to the city center for the dinner one day after I arrived, and I was so shocked that the city was quite empty. My friends explained me that it was the downtown, while now it is large space with only few buildings. And my friend added, "We now have good new restaurants coming. It was sad, but because of the earthquake, now we can have new good shops and restaurants". He is very optimistic even he was affected by the earthquake.

In 2011, I was in Geneva, Switzerland. I didn't feel any shake, but an east part of Japan and Christchurch had big earthquakes separately. At that time, I was so shocked and couldn't concentrate on my work. I was looking at the website of Japanese TV news. When I was so sad, one of my friends in Geneva said "Japan is such a strong country and they will recover soon. Economically, maybe the loss for the moment is very big. However, with this earthquake, the requirement of employment will increase and they will become stronger than before".

I am not sure that we became stronger than before. Many people in Tohoku area are still suffering from the loss of their life. However, I think that it is very important to stay optimistic in such a difficult situation. It is a chance to be reborn for everyone!

Tea time at the cafe in Botanic Garden

I myself was in a difficult situation this year. I had an impression that nothing goes well with my life. However, this city and my friend reminded me that this is my chance. I can find something new for myself and my life. For a while, I haven't had a feeling that I have been enjoying my life, but I started to enjoy my life again. The Botanic Garden was beautiful and the cafe in the garden was nice and comfortable!

From Hawaii To Makuhari, Japan

Just trees and blue sky near Alawai in Honolulu

My journey started from Hawaii this month. I had visited Hawaii one and a half years ago. So, some parts of the Honolulu town changed. In Waikiki, there were many constructions maybe because old buildings should be rebuilt.

The train of Honolulu Railway by Railway Age (http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/passenger/rapid-transit/prototype-hart-trainset-unveiled.html?channel=)

 

On May 3rd, I arrived at Honolulu. When I checked in the hotel, I found the newspaper saying the first train arrived at Honolulu and people celebrated it. I couldn't really believe it because it was very big issue in Honolulu and people seemed not to desire to have the train in Honolulu when I lived there. However, I think this is a good chance for Honolulu to be a comfortable city.

Waikiki beach

For my life, this visit to Honolulu was a bit bitter. Blue ocean comforted me in my grief. I have many good friends in Honolulu, and so I was not so so sad at that time.

The wave of real grief hit me after I came back to Japan. However, I didn't have much time to feel sadness as I had to present my work in the conference.

Makuhari beach

The Makuhari town which was the conference site is also along the coast. The color of the ocean is different from Waikiki beach, but there is a beach. I was not so sad anymore as I saw many old friends and researchers. I enjoyed presenting my study, chatting with my friends, and discussing with other researchers. I felt strong bond with my friends and this working field. I think one of the reasons why I continue to work for volcanology is that I like talking with these people.

A hamburger at KUA`AINA in Maihama, Japan

Strangely, I went to Kua`Aina not in Honolulu but in Maihama near Makuhari. I ate a big avocado hamburger with my friend from my university days. I think the hamburger is the best at Kua`Aina in Haleiwa, Oahu Island. Unfortunately, I couldn't go there this month... I am sure to go there next time!!

The last moment in Makuhari, I received an email saying that my paper was published.

Please visit my paper at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40623-016-0463-8?view=classic

I desired to publish this paper after Ontake eruption in 2014. When the eruption started, I was in Honolulu. Since then, I came back to Japan and had worked for this topic with a feeling of my destiny. "This is my mission as my numerical model of ballistic trajectories in volcanic eruptions is unique to estimate the energy of blocks which killed many people", I thought.  Now, I am feeling that I can step forward.

Snow Observation in Nagaoka

Nagaoka City from a hotel

Nagaoka is a city where they have much snow in Japan. I went there for taking a course of snow observation. I stayed at the hotel just in front of the Nagaoka station.
 I went around the city in the morning. There were Hinamatusri exhibitions at some locations in the city.

Hinamatsuri Decoration 1

Hinamatsuri Decoration 2

 Hinamatsuri is a festival for girls. We pray that a girl have a good marriage. It is on March 3rd and also called "Momo no Sekku" which means seasonal festival of peach flower. We have two festival on the same day probably because a peach flower is a symbol of Spring.
At the tourist information, I asked about the place to stay only for one or two hours. Thesn, they recommended me "Tanita cafe" close to the station.

Tanita Cafe in Nagaoka

"Tanita" is a name of a company who makes scales. These couple of years, they make good health scales and promote healthy life. Their scale can measure the amount of fat and muscles with electric current. In the cafe, we can have an advice after we measure the precise value of body weight, fat and muscle.

Result of my measurement!

 This chart shows the amount of muscle (upper, blue) and the amount of fat (lower, green). If the value is higher, the color is stronger.　It means I have much muscles on my arms and legs, while I don't have much muscles in the center part of my body. And I have much fat on my arms. Totally, my body balance was not so bad. They calculated an Index of Athlete (how much you are close to an athlete??). For me it was 72/100. It means my body is quite athletic. Wow!!

However, I need strong muscle in the center part of my body because muscle of body trunk is very important for classical ballet. I am now thinking how I can train this part.

Anyway, it was very nice day with blue sky!

Snow Observation Course

I enjoyed a course of snow observation. In the yard of the institute, it was easy. However, it must be hard to observe snow layers and measure physical parameters in Mt. Fuji. OK, I don't need to worry too much for the moment. Let's just enjoy!

Field Work in Sakurajima

Sakurajima from Sakurajima Ferry (from Kagoshima city to Sakurajima Island)

We went to Sakurajima which is like a Island (but not really an Island because it is connected to Kyushu at a point), in December 2014. Sakurajima is in Kagoshima prefecture, which is the south part of Kyushu Island in Japan. This Sakurajima is quite famous as an active volcano in Japan.

What is our work? I cannot say our idea for the field work in detail because we haven't made any publication with this study. Anyway, our aim is to collect volcanic ash samples and their pictures.

My colleague making an special box for collecting volcanic ash samples.

At first, we waited for an eruption in the observatory. When the strain of volcanic edifice grows, we moved to the downwind direction. And there, we waited for an eruption again. Once it happened, we ran by a car to follow the volcanic cloud. Then, we collect samples just under the volcanic cloud.

My cap was covered with volcanic ashes.

It was nasty to work under the ash fall especially when it rained. The first eruption we caught was with a rain. So the samples were wet and it was very difficult to take good pictures.

Ash covered car.

Our car is coated by ashes. Though it is not clear because this car's color is silver, people were surprised with our car completely covered with ashes. Of course, we followed ash cloud!

Starting of the eruption.

 After two days, the weather became better. So I could see the eruption starting from Showa Crater. It was not such a big eruption, while it was exciting to see the volcanic cloud. Fortunately, it was not so scary this time.

Tonkotsu Ramen in Kagoshima city

My colleagues came back as they had other schedules. Finally, I became alone... I went out for eating dinner by myself in Kagoshima city where I stayed. I chose "Ramen" because Tonkotsu taste is popular in Kyushu. Tonkotsu means a bone of porc/pig. The soup of this ramen is taken by bones of porc. I like Ramen, and it was delicious!

Now, I am analyzing the data which we took in Sakurajima. I feel that these data are not enough and I have to come back to Sakurajima later again. It's my pleasure to come back!

Year 2014 to 2015

For me, 2014 was very busy year.

A summit of Mt. Fuji from helicopter

This year, I saw many aspects of this volcano. I worked for this volcano.

A summit of Mt. Fuji from Nanamagari parking lot of Fujinomiya (in Shizuoka) route.

Sometimes I saw it from Shizuoka prefecture, but mostly from Yamanashi prefecture as I worked for a Yamanashi prefectural government in Japan.

Mountain hut on the slope of Mt. Fuji. Many people visit and climb up to the summit of this mountain.

My work is to think about how to mitigate disasters of volcanic eruption around Mt. Fuji. So we searched evacuation route everywhere on the slope of volcano.

Lava tree with a professor of Akita University.

Our work is to educate people around volcano.  So there  were many events to show volcanic features of nature and give lectures. I met many people and many mysterious places of Mt. Fuji.

Amusement park of Gaspard et Lisa.

Mt. Fuji is a popular touristic spot in Japan. So there are many parks and sightseeing places around. Gaspard et Lisa is a book for children originally in French. These rabbits are so cute. I sometimes visit this park because it is free to enter.

Big things for me in 2014 are firstly, a visit of Hawaii in the end of September.

Mouna Loa from the parking lot of Jagger Museum.

I wanted to visit my boyfriend and my field in Kilauea, but I couldn't visit in 2013. So it has been one and a half years since I left Hawaii. I was very happy to enter the ocean as it was not so easy to get to the coast in Japan.

Kailua coast in Oahu Island.

I was very happy to float on the ocean. However, there were lava flow approaching to the residential area of Pahoa, in Big Island. Finally, this lava flow reached a house in November.

In Hawaii, I had a heartwarming dinner with my boyfriend's family. I thought like that his family is my family. It was wonderful evening. Just after I returned to my hotel, I got a call from my mother telling me a disaster of Ontake volcano.
So, one of the biggest things is an eruption of Ontake volcano. This makes me so sad, while at the same time, it made my motivation to work for disaster mitigation research.

Mt. Fuji from Kawaguchiko (lake).

I wish year 2015 would be a peaceful and nice year for everybody!!

Happy New Year

Mount Fuji Area, Introduction

Actually, I moved from Nagoya to Fuji-yoshida in April, 2014. I started to work as a researcher at Mount Fuji Research Institute of Yanamashi Prefecture, Japan. I have been very busy since I moved to Mt. Fuji area and I have not reported yet about this region.

Mt. Fuji from from the coast of Lake Kawaguchi-ko.

Mt. Fuji from a shrine gate "Kanadorii"

Our institute is at the north foot of Mt. Fuji. So I live in the town in the north region. Near my house, we can see Mt. Fuji from everywhere. One example is from "Kanadorii" which is a gate of the shrine "Sengen-jinja".

Mt. Fuji from a family restaurant "Gusto".

I often go to a family restaurant to have a breakfast (as it is cheap and I can read a newspaper there). From the restaurant, I can see Mt. Fuji so well.

Mt. Fuji from the 5th station in the end of April.

Mt. Fuji from the parking lot of 5th station in the beginning of July.

Mt. Fuji is often painted with snow on top,but it melts in summer.You can see the difference in scenery  of April and July.

Volcanic ejecta found around 4th station of Mt. Fuji.

I would like to add one comment that Mt. Fuji is a volcano. It's recent activity was in 1707 and the seismic activity was detected in the deep side of the mountain around 2000. So this mountain still has a possibility to erupt (active volcano!). This is a reason why we, volcanologists are employed to study volcanic activity of Mt. Fuji.

Atsuta Jingu

Atsuta Jingu is one of the most famous shrine in Japan. It is in Nagoya city but I haven't visited this place before. My friend visit Nagoya and so we went there together. Actually, our first aim to go to Atsuta is to eat Hitsumabushi. "Hitsu" means a wooden container of rice. And "Mabushi" means...? I am not sure. In some region (such as Kansai district) they call it also "Mamushi". I guess its origin is "Mammeshi" which means rice with eel. Yes, Histumabushi is rice with grilled eel on top.

A set of Hitsumabushi lunch! by Atsuta Houraiken

 There are three steps to eat this Histumabushi. 1st, Eat rice and eel simply. 2nd, Eat rice and eel with spices. 3rd Eat rice, eel and spice with hot soup called "Dashi".　Dashi is soup of fish or seaweed (In red pot of the photo above), often used for Japanese cuisine.

Next step is to visit the shrine. I was impressed with a gate of Atsuta Jingu because it was very big but not too shiny.

The gate (Torii) of Atsuta Jingu

With some woods around, it looked literally awesome. Especially,it looked nice on such pleasant day.

Hongu (Principle palace) of Atsuta Jingu

Here is a Hongu which means a principle palace. We pray just at the entrance of Hongu but we couldn't enter inside.

The entrance of Hongu where people bow and pray

We crap hands twice and bow. Then we pray putting hands together for a while. I am not religious person but I like this moment because I can be very quiet and calm. I often think about my family and someone who is very precious for me but not together right at the moment. I hope my wish reaches to the god and good things come true.

Inside of Hongu entrance

We cannot enter inside of Hongu. This makes us to feel the god of Hongu is so sacred. I imagine what is inside while it stays mysterious forever like this...

Ume (plum) tree with a lot of flowers.

Spring is the best season in Japan (I think). We can enjoy seeing flowers. It was too early to see cherry blossoms but we could enjoy plum flowers. I prefer plum as a symbol of my elementary school was plum. Plum is called "Ume" in Japan. Ume stays in cold weather during the winter and when the spring comes, they start to bloom at once. So with such cold winter, Ume can be beautiful. That was a way of teaching how to endure hard occasion to Japanese elementary students... When I was a child, I am honestly impressed with this story. I started to like Ume. In fact, the aroma of Ume is much better and stronger than cherry blossoms.

We see a couple just married by accident. They looked very happy and beautiful in the spring sunshine!

Just married couple

Then, at last... Sweets! This is a Japanese parfait with Marcha (green tea) ice cream, Dango (rice cake with a stick) and Anko (red bean paste). Also, there were some grains of rice at the bottom.

Dango parfait in Osu.

We had moved to Osu town in the center of Nagoya city from Atsuta. In Osu area, we can find many sweets shops and funny stores. It is very fun to walk around. I think Nagoyan (people in Nagoya) like Japanese sweets. I could find many sweets shops not only in Osu area but all over Nagoya.

Oh, I will stay in Nagoya only two weeks more. Next destination is not a bad place, but maybe I will miss Nagoya a little bit. A reason is... yes... Japanese sweets!

New Year's Custom in Japan (Part 2)

I would like to introduce some more events for a new year.

Hatsumoude （初詣）is to go to the shrine/temple for the first time of a year.

Iseyama Koutai Jinguu (Yokohama, Japan) on January 3rd

It is a custom for our family to go to the shrine near our house. I don't know the reason why my parents chose this shrine but it is quite big and many people comes. This year, I went there on new year's day and January 3rd. The picture above is the shrine on 3rd. So it was not too crowded. On new year's day, there are so many people that we can't move quickly.

Why did I go there twice? because... I needed a special pray for my Yakudoshi. Yakudoshi is bad/unlucky year and we have to be careful during the year. And so we try to remove bad luck which is called "Yaku" in Japanese. Yakudoshi is defined by the age (please refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakudoshi). For me, this year is "Ato-yaku" which means unlucky year after the mainly unlucky year "Hon-yaku". In the shrine, "Kan-nushi"(priest of Shintoism) gives us a special pray called "Suzu-harae/harai" or simply "Harae". It is purification by removing bad things around me. I couldn't take a picture of this ceremony, but it is not too complicated. We were just standing in front of the god and bowing. The priest (Kan-nushi) say something (Norito) and did the action of cleaning us with white tool looks like a duster or broom. After the harai, we got a Ofuda (plate of lucky charm or bad-luck removing charm) with each name.There are some stalls for selling lucky charms. It is fun to see such colorful luck charms with various shapes. Some of them are in the shape of farming tool.

My Yakuyoke fuda (Ofuda)

Stall for selling lucky charms

 Another thing we always do in the shrine is to buy "Omikuji". It is a piece of paper with some words for predicting things in a year. There are some kinds; "Dai-kichi", "Chu-kichi","Sho-kichi", "Kichi", "Sue-kichi","Kyo" (from good to bad). This year, I got a "Kichi" which means good. Even with Atoyaku, I maybe have a nice year!!

Nanakusa-gayu （七草粥）
I ate a Nanakusa-gayu, this morning because it was January 7th. "Nanakusa" means seven herbs or weed. We memorize seven kinds as "Seri, Nazuna, Gogyo, Hakobera, Hotokenoza, Suzuna, Suzushiro" Haru-no Nanakusa. It is like a poem. "Haru-no nanakusa" means seven herbs in Spring because we also have "Nanakusa" in autumn. I thought we eat this as our stomach is so tired with many big meals during a new year's holiday. However, it seems that there is another meaning. Nonetheless we do not know the original meaning exactly.

Nanakusa-gayu which I cooked by myself

Mochi-tsuki （餅つき）
Mochi (Sticky rice cake) is indispensable for our new year's holidays and so we often have this event of making Mochi before the new year. Anyway, we had Mochi-tsuki in the campus of our university on 8th January. We could try beating Mochi with a Kiné (a big wood hammer). This hammer is heavy and so we need young power for making Mochi! In this event, we ate Mochi just after we made. Mochi is very soft and delicious when it has been just made. We ate with Kinako (powder of soy bean), Anko (red bean paste) and Oroshi (ground radish with soy sauce). I like sweet taste of Kinako and Anko. Oroshi was  also good with Mochi.

Mochi-tsuki of a girl

Mochi-tsuki of a young guy! We need  power for Mochi tsuki.